"I'm afraid you must wait." Nether says softly looking down to meet Tango's eyes.
Puffing his cheeks out he ruffles his wing in agitation, then swallows hard, repeating uselessly, "Why not?"
"Hatchling," Nether says slowly, "I think you know why."
Sucking in a breath, Tango turns away from the dimension. Then he darts out of the room.
"Uh oh," Zed whispers to Impulse before taking a slow wobbly step towards Tango, look you try walking on human feet after having Sheep hooves for over a year... "You ok dude?"
Tango hides his face in his hands, and shakes his head slightly, " No ."
Zed opens his mouth to say something but gets cut off as Tango makes a shrieking sound in the back of his throat. Then the tears start coming.
"It's not... it's not fair. " Tango wimpers shrinking back from the group of assorted hermits, who are looking at him with poorly disguised pity.
"I know." Impulse murmurs as he slowly sits on the ground next to Tango.
" I want to go back to normal..." he whispers, frantically scrubbing at his face, "I want to be human." He clutches at his head tugging at his pointed ears.
"You'd get stuck like this..." Zedaph points out.
"I KNOW." Tango Snaps his tail thrashing, hitting the ground with a painful Thwack. " I know ..." he sniffles, drawing his tail into his chest, "I don't want to get stuck... but it's not fair. You made your choices. I-i I wanna go home. "
"We can go," Impulse offers his hand to help Tango up. Tango reaches up for him.
Picking him up, Impulse tells Joe where they're going and they start the walk towards Tango's starter base.
At some point during the walk, Tango falls asleep.
"This is the second day right?"
Impulse nods, "Yeah."
Zed hums as he stomps his feet, trying to get used to balancing on human legs, This is harder than he thought. "I'm worried..."
"About what?" Impulse asks as he slows down to let Zed catch up.
Sighing he bites his lip, then rubs his head, "Don't you think he's acting a bit off?" At Impulse's confused expression he elaborates, "He wouldn't put the stegosaurus down at all yesterday. Wels told me that right after the respawn he was super clingy. And I don't know, something's wrong..."
Impulse pauses. "I think you're right. He's not normally this skittish... maybe it's the dubble respawn?"
"Has he had that before?" Zed asks slowly, "We could be in trouble,"
"This is the first time." Impulse murmurs, eyes locking onto Tango's sleeping form.
"What if it's not a normal respawn?"
"s not, normal," Tango mumbles as he yawns, blinking as he wakes up a little, "m not supposed to be a kid."
"Is anything worse?" Impulse asks, brushing off his complaint, as he sets Tango on the side of the bridge.
Tango squints, "I don't think so? Something's different..."
"Do you know what's different?"
"I mean, I think, the brain fog is worse. " He looks up at them, "And I don't feel as awkward."
Impulse looks at Zedaph who nods, "I'll walk Tango back, you go find Joe or... Well X won't be any help, so get Joe when he's available."
Impulse nods and starts running back.
"And let's get you home." Zed laughs, "Do you want to do something in particular?"
"Sleep." Tango murmurs, "Just get this over with."
"Alright." Zedaph frowns. They walk the rest of the way in silence
___________
Once they arrive at Tango's starter base Zed puts Tango on his bed and wraps his tail. He had apparently sprained it when he smacked it on the ground.
Tango didn't wake up that night.
The next morning he's up and they call Joe over, asking if he can tell what's wrong.
"Well." Joe sits back on his haunches, "Good news, He'll turn back. Bad news, it'll take three weeks."
"what?" Tango whispers.
"I'll ask Nether if he has something to speed things up." Joe hums, "Shouldn't be all that uncommon. I'll be back."
Tango doesn't move. Instead a growl rips its way from his throat.
"Hey. We're going to fix this don't worry." Impulse sighs, "It's not forever."
"He said I'm stuck like this for a month..." Tango hisses, "I am not... I'm not a kid."
"We know." Zedaph murmurs.
"Do you?" Tango huffs, "You treat me like I'm made of glass."
They fall silent. Tango's claim isn't completely unfounded, but... they're all trying. It's not easy on anyone when this happens. Not that anyone would say that to his face. He's definitely got the worst end of it, but for the others. It was a reminder. Telling them they have no power here. They have no control. And with the meteor gone. It's somehow worse.
"Yeah." Tango sniffs and rubs at his cheeks. "S what I thought."
The rest of the morning is spent in awkward silence.
Tango's not in the mood to talk and no one's pushing him.
That evening Joe returns.
"Did you find anything?" Tango asks excitedly.
Joe shakes his head, "The flower needed is out of season. And there is no storage yet. The plant he has is to young to use magic on. I'm sorry."
"It's fine." Tango replies automatically.
After that Tango draws into himself. Acting like he's just on autopilot. Not reacting too much. He's constantly sleeping of doing something that takes all of his attention.
No time to let his mind wander.
It's. It's not good.
He's clearly hurting. But he won't talk. His feathers are dull and the fire on his tail dim.
One the first week is up and he's grown up a bit he's a little better. Knowing for sure that it's not permanent. He'll be able to go back.
He's still in zombie mode but he's at least talking to them sometimes.
The moment he wakes up and is back to his correct age he gets the crystal from Impulse.
"I'm glad to be rid of this," He scoffs. Shattering the crystal and turning human.
"Feel better?" Zedaph asks grining to his friend.
"So much better." Tango confirms. Pulling him and Impulse into a group hug.
It looks like Wattpad caps out at 200 chapters. I deleted a previous chapter that was like five words to make up for this.
So unfortunately this will be the last chapter posted to here. Two more will be coming on AO3 I will drop a link In the comments here if you want to read those chapters when I post them.
But now it's goodbye <3